DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) Funds are requested to support the Gordon Conference on Cell Contact and Adhesion. This conference has convened every other year since 1973, and represents one of the key meetings in the field. Each conference has been well attended, demonstrating a sustained interest by the academic community. The conference is intended to bring together a mixture of research groups in a format highly conducive to both formal and informal exchange. In addition, the breadth of the meeting provides an excellent educational opportunity for those who are beginning their careers or moving into a new subject area. The speakers chosen represent not only some of the most active groups, but also individuals with the capacity to generate useful discussion of their own and other topics. The sessions emphasize areas of recent progress, and are of interest to a diverse community of scientists including molecular biologists, cell biologists, developmental biologists, neurobiologists, pathologists and cancer biologists. The topics covered will examine the molecular mechanisms controlling cell interactions in several interesting biological systems. They will include discussions of specific cell surface receptors, such as those in the integrin, immunoglobulin, cadherin and new receptor tyrosine phosphatase families. Additional topics will include contact-dependent cell communications as evidence by interactions medicated by Notch/Delta, Boss/Sevenless, and gap junctions. The levels on analysis will range from X-ray crystallography of protein domains to cytoplasmic signaling at junctional complexes to in vivo consequences. The latter will include a full session on recent breakthroughs in the understanding of specific human diseases. Through this program this conference aims to bring together a group of scientists and students with diverse systems and approaches to allow more complete understanding of the common theme of cell adhesion mechanisms.